Finger fatigue after hours of video gaming may become a thing of the past, as firms unveil headsets that measures users’ brainwaves and allow them to interact with apps installed in computers.<\/p>\n
The new technology is part of a wider exhibition of wearable computing, the next great frontier in consumer electronics, on display at Taipei’s Computex trade fair.<\/p>\n
At the show on Wednesday US chip company NeuroSky promoted its new product MindWave Mobile — a brain-computer interface which allows headset-wearing users to interact with apps in computers and other devices without lifting a finger.<\/p>\n
Wearing a MindWave headset, a member of staff demonstrated how to pilot a toy helicopter using just his thoughts.<\/p>\n
Chips inside the headset measure brainwave signals and transfer data via Bluetooth to wirelessly communicate with users’ computers or mobile devices, explained Giant Lin, a representative of NeuroSky’s Taiwan branch.<\/p>\n
“It’s amazing. It can detect what you think. Maybe you can use your mindwaves to control a car. That’s technology,” said Alpha Alexander Atega, a visitor at the fair, after trying a headset.<\/p>\n
The Silicon Valley-based company has been targeting its technology at brain training games and educational apps.<\/p>\n
Mindwave technology has already been taken up by several schools in Malaysia and Singapore, said Lin, in programmes designed to help students improve their concentration.<\/p>\n
“We believe that such technologies have huge potential as lots of families, especially in Chinese communities, pay heed to education,” he said.<\/p>\n
The firm is now looking for new partners to develop other applications which could use the chips, said Lin.<\/p>\n
More than 1,700 exhibitors are displaying their latest products at 5,000 booths in Computex Taipei, drawing an estimated 130,000 visitors, including 36,000 visitors from abroad, the organisers said.<\/p>\n
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